The present invention relates in general to the field of computers and other data processing systems, including hardware, software and processes. More particularly, the present invention pertains to automatically correlating a visual representation of a graphical object in a Graphical User Interface (GUI) with a written description of that graphical object.
A useful feature of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) is its ability to display graphical objects used with an application. These graphical objects may be displayed in a webpage, an application display (used by a program such as a graphing program, a spreadsheet, a word processor, etc.), an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), or any display used by software that displays graphical objects. For example, consider the GUI 102 shown in FIG. 1. GUI 102 includes a file navigation pane 104, which displays links to various files and subfiles. If a user wishes to search any of these files/subfiles, then the user utilizes a GUI widget 106, which is presented in the shape of a magnifying glass. Through the reading of a text field 108, the user is instructed to use the magnifying glass to search the files/subfiles. Note that the GUI widget 106 is identified as a “striped magnifying glass.” If the visual appearance of the GUI widget 106 changes (e.g., from striped to checked, or colored, or shaded, etc., or from a magnifying glass to a question mark, an arrow, a star, etc.), then the instructions in the text field 108 will no longer make sense, since the GUI widget 106 is no longer a “striped magnifying glass.”